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The Party of "No"

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As you head to the polls on November 8th bring along your health insurance
bill as a reminder of what's at stake. Can you afford 4 more years of
double digit premium increases?

Premiums will go up sharply next year under President Barack Obama's health
care law, and many consumers will be down to just one insurer, the administration
confirmed Monday.

Before taxpayer-provided subsidies, premiums for a midlevel benchmark plan will
increase an average of 25 percent across the 39 states served by the federally
run online market, according to a report from the Department of Health and
Human Services. Some states will see much bigger jumps, others less.

Moreover, about 1 in 5 consumers will have plans only from a single insurer to
pick from, after major national carriers such as UnitedHealth Group, Humana and
Aetna scaled back their roles.

"Consumers will be faced this year with not only big premium increases but also
with a declining number of insurers participating, and that will lead to a
tumultuous open enrollment period," said Larry Levitt, who tracks the health
care law for the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

And it's not "greedy insurance companies" who required the plans to take
on all comers and charge them the same price regardless of risk of illness
or pre-existing conditions.

Nope, that was President Barack The Magnificent, who's a firm believer in
the Government Knows Best school of human interaction. According to him,
the only choices we're allowed to make are choices he's pre-selected for us.

To which the "greedy insurance companies" responded, "No thanks."

Dwindling choice is another issue.

The total number of HealthCare.gov insurers will drop from 232 this year to
167 in 2017, a loss of 28 percent. (Insurers are counted multiple times if
they offer coverage in more than one state. So Aetna, for example, would count
once in each state that it participated in.)

Switching insurers may not be simple for patients with chronic conditions.

While many carriers are offering a choice of plan designs, most use a single
prescription formulary and physician network across all their products, explained
Pearson. "So, enrollees may need to change doctors or drugs when they switch
insurers," she said.

If you like your doctor you can't keep your doctor.

If you like your life-saving medication you probably can't keep them either.

Adding to the pain, employer-sponsored plans will likely see very similar premium
increases and reductions in choices because they're required to offer the same
comprehensive coverages as the marketplace plans.

There really isn't anything surprising, though, about Obamacare's latest woes.
They were widely predicted. Obamacare was ill-conceived — so ill-conceived
that some suggest it was designed to fail and be replaced with a single-payer
style system.

If you think health care is expensive now, just wait until Hillary makes it
"free."

Obamacare's passage is an object lesson in what happens when Democrats control
the White House and the Congress. The latest news should help drive that lesson
home just in time for the election.

Yup. Just say "No" to Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. Vote Donald Trump for
President! Because he'll repeal Obamacare on day one, and save us money.

And Bill himself "pitched a new system that would allow people to buy into
Medicare or Medicaid," while calling for "a government-run 'public option,'
describing it as 'the change we need' to help working class people who aren't
covered."

Because what's better than a botched government takeover of health insurance
companies?

A government takeover of all health care!

Doctors, nurses, hospitals, pharmacies, drug companies — they'll all
fall under the umbrella of the omnipotent State. And promptly become as
screwed up as the health insurance marketplaces are now. But that's not
important.

What's important (h/t
Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll on Facebook) is getting 51% of the
people to vote for Hillary Clinton by promising that the other 49% will pay for
their every whim.

And face it, universal Single Payer health care is the liberal holy grail.

With it they can enslave the population until the end of time.

Nevermind that truly successful government programs are few and far between.

Nevermind that of the three current government health care systems, the VA
is an unmitigated disaster, Medicaid is rampant with fraud, and Medicare is
woefully underfunded.

Hillarycare will be the bees knees. Honest!

Don't be fooled. Government health care will promote neither health nor care.
It will provide lifetime sinecures for bureaucrats, and offer up unprecedented
opportunities for graft, but as for helping the average American, well, that's
gonna have to wait for the next Five Year Plan. Or maybe the one after that.

There's a reason no one from the U.S. travels to Canada (or Cuba or England
or Sweden) for health care. Socialized medicine sucks. The lines are long.
The care is subpar. The horror stories are legion. Venezuela is the model.

The only truly meaningful reform will come about via the free market. Remove
the government from the equation entirely. Eliminate costly mandates, and
let people buy the coverage they alone decide that they need. Institute pricing
transparency, so that doctors and hospitals post their rates for all to see,
and consumers can comparison shop. Free insurance companies from the artificial
boundaries of state lines and allow us to purchase health care coverage from
anyone willing to sell it to us. Expand the role of Health Savings Accounts
to enable more of us to prepare for unexpected expenses.

Then watch prices drop as care improves.

That's how to reform Obamacare, no matter what Bill and Hillary might want
you to believe.

Faced with "a deteriorating financial condition," another health insurance
carrier is pulling out of New Jersey's health exchange marketplace created
under the Affordable Care Act, forcing 35,000 policy holders to find a new
plan in 2017, the state's top insurance official announced Monday night.

Health Republic Insurance of New Jersey will serve customers through the end
of the year, state Department of Banking and Insurance Commissioner Richard
Badolato said.

The state is working out a "rehabilitation" plan that preserves the carrier's
financial assets so medical providers will be reimbursed for the care they
provide consumers for the remainder of the year, Badolato said in a statement
late Monday.

"Rehabilitation plan" is regulator-speak for bankruptcy, although
they're desparately pretending that everything is going to be OK, sometime
in 2018, maybe. In the meantime they're taking a break.

Because no matter how you phrase it, New Jersey's Obamacare co-op is broke.

Health Republic got its start with $107 million loan through the landmark
health care law, in an effort to create competition. But more than half of
the nonprofit co-ops (or consumer-operated and oriented programs) have folded,
crippled by higher than anticipated expenses and the financial requirements of
the federal law.

Health Republic owes $46.3 million under the risk adjustment program tied to
the Affordable Care Act, which requires insurers which enroll healthier and
less costly enrollees to contribute to a fund that would bail out plans serving
a larger share of sicker and most expensive patients.

So now there are only 2 insurers left in our Obamacare exchange: Horizon Blue
Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and AmeriHealth of New Jersey. Neither are
known for their low rates.

The marketplaces which were supposed to open up competition have instead
driven away most of the competitors. Which must mean Obamacare is "working,"
or something.

The "something" being, of course, the inexorable march to Single Payer
Nirvanna, where the costs can really rack up and the opportunities for
graft are endless. Quality of care will go down the tubes (just look at
the VA, which is as close to Single Payer as we've got) but that just
means the rubes will die off faster. So long as the bureaucrats get paid
and the expense checks for their junkets keep rolling in our Single Payer
future will be touted as rosier than a Bernie voter's glasses.

Obamacare is working so well insurance companies are in a race to get out of it.
The latest escapee is
Oscar Health Insurance, announcing today they are completely withdrawing
from the New Jersey market.

Oscar Health Insurance, a start-up insurance company founded by a scion of the
Kushner real estate fortune and known for its cartoon advertising campaign in
mass-transit hubs, announced Tuesday that it was pulling out of the market in
New Jersey created by the Affordable Care Act.

The company started providing coverage to New Jersey residents in 2015, and
insured 24,560 people, as of March 30.

Oscar also is withdrawing from the individual market in Dallas-Fort Worth. It
will remain in New York, Fort Worth, Los Angeles and Orange County, a company
statement said.

The exodus from Obamacare is now a stampede, as Oscar joins Aetna and
UnitedHealthcare (Oxford) in abandoning the federally-mandated marketplace.

So now there are only 3 insurers left in NJ's Obamacare exchange: Horizon Blue
Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, AmeriHealth of New Jersey, and Health Republic
Insurance of New Jersey.

Blue Cross is of course the state's insurer of last resort, and they've got
the astronomical rates to prove it.

Residents in seven states won't have much of a choice in selecting medical
coverage under ObamaCare next year because only a single insurer plans to
offer policies in each market, it was reported Monday.

"Lower-than-expected enrollment, a high-cost population, and troubled
risk-mitigation programs have led to decreased plan participation for 2017,"
said Dan Mendelson, president of the consulting firm Avalere Health.

Avalere's analysis indicates that Alaska, Alabama, Kansas, North Carolina,
Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming will each have only one carrier selling
policies.

The president says you have to buy it. But he forgot to tell someone that
they have to sell it.

Which, if you think about it for a minute, is actually a feature from his
perspective, and not the bug you'd expect it to be.

Because if no one is willing to provide Obamacare coverage, that
opens the door to having the Federal government step in to provide coverage.

And before you can say "single payer," that's exactly what you'll get —
health care with the compassion of the VA delivered via the efficiency of the
DMV, all at a price that'll make your taxes skyrocket.

The number of insurance companies offering health coverage via the Affordable
Care Act marketplace in New Jersey will dip to four next year when Oxford
Health Plans, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare, pulls out.

UnitedHealthcare, the nation's largest insurer, announced in April that it
would leave the Obamacare marketplaces next year in most of the 34 states in
which it offered coverage. High health costs for the small number of people
who signed up in those markets led it to project $650 million in losses this
year, the company reported. The company did not reveal its plans for New
Jersey at that time.

A state insurance official notified the company on Tuesday 5/17 that the
withdrawal of its HMO offerings was approved, to take effect on Jan. 1. The
HMO will no longer be offered either on healthcare.gov or in the state's
unsubsidized individual market.

There goes my plan.

I liked it. But, I can't keep it.

Of course I liked my pre-Obamacare plan better, but I couldn't keep that either.

Thanks Barry!

Oxford customers affected by this move are to receive notification letters in
late June. They will be able to shop for replacement coverage during the open
enrollment period that begins on Nov. 1.

Yippee Kai Ay.

The insurers currently approved to sell coverage through the Affordable Care
Act in New Jersey are Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, AmeriHealth
of New Jersey, Health Republic of New Jersey, and Oscar Health Insurance, which
is available in nine counties, including Bergen and Passaic.

With competition decreasing, watch for rate hikes.
Big rate hikes. Because anyone who thought "affordable care" meant lower
prices is an idiot. Or a Democrat. But I repeat myself.

The Department of Health and Human Services issued a final regulation Friday
that will pressure health insurers to cover sex change operations, which could
then be subsidized by taxpayers through Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare.

The regulation "prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin,
sex, age, or disability; enhances language assistance for individuals with
limited English proficiency; and protects individuals with disabilities," the
agency said in a release.

Doctors and health insurers also cannot deny "health care or health coverage
based on an individual's sex, including discrimination based on pregnancy,
gender identity, and sex stereotyping."

In a fact sheet on the portion of the rule regarding sex discrimination, the
government explains that health care providers cannot refuse to cover all
services related to a sex change — such as hormone therapy, breast
implants, and the surgery itself — as a matter of policy.

Meanwhile, the folks who pioneered sex change surgery no longer offer
that form of treatment.
Here's why:

At Johns Hopkins, after pioneering sex-change surgery, we demonstrated that
the practice brought no important benefits. As a result, we stopped offering
that form of treatment in the 1970s. Our efforts, though, had little influence
on the emergence of this new idea about sex, or upon the expansion of the
number of "transgendered" among young and old....

I am ever trying to be the boy among the bystanders who points to what's real.
I do so not only because truth matters, but also because overlooked amid the
hoopla — enhanced now by Bruce Jenner's celebrity and Annie Leibovitz's
photography — stand many victims. Think, for example, of the parents
whom no one — not doctors, schools, nor even churches — will help
to rescue their children from these strange notions of being transgendered and
the problematic lives these notions herald. These youngsters now far
outnumber the Bruce Jenner type of transgender [autogynephilia]. Although they
may be encouraged by his public reception, these children generally come to their
ideas about their sex not through erotic interests but through a variety of
youthful psychosocial conflicts and concerns....

When "the tumult and shouting dies," it proves not easy nor wise to live in a
counterfeit sexual garb. The most thorough follow-up of sex-reassigned people
— extending over thirty years and conducted in Sweden, where the culture
is strongly supportive of the transgendered — documents their lifelong
mental unrest. Ten to fifteen years after surgical reassignment, the
suicide rate of those who had undergone sex-reassignment surgery rose to
twenty times that of comparable peers.

Speaking of Bruce Jenner,
word is that he's going to "de-transition." So had this regulation been
in place when he invented "Caitlyn," Obama would have us paying for both sex
changes.

At least he's an adult, and if he wants to screw around with his plumbing
and his hormones, well that's why we have tabloids and celebrity gossip
columnists.

Transgender people descend into despair when even all the medicine and medical
advances that everyone encouraged can't change their biological reality. In
fact, the medicine used on younger individuals prior to surgeries causes its
own harms.

As gender dysphoria becomes more accepted as normal for children, "supportive"
adults lead children to "helpful" doctors who use various "treatments" to block
puberty. Some can merely delay puberty for a few years. But the blockers lock
the child into
sterility and
health risks in their tweens and early teens.

For what other issue would any parent accept an increasing risk of cancer and
suicide? We obsessively control our kids' diets and activities for far less
dire outcomes based on far flimsier research.

According to Obama, a school that can't legally give a child an aspirin, can,
and indeed must, honor that child's "perceived gender" with nary a
question or raised eyebrow. And doctors who would cringe at seeing a teenage
girl enter a tanning booth or smoke a cigarette won't hesitate to give her
life-altering drugs that radically revise her transition into puberty.

Because, feelings.

It's madness.

Not only that, but according to Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the former psychiatrist in
chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital,
it's "impossible" too.

He went on to write that changing sexes is impossible and that what transgendered
people actually do is become "feminized men or masculinized women."

The latest dilemma facing economists is why "unequivocally good" low oil prices
haven't sparked excuberant consumer spending across America. We have discussed
the simple (though awkward for the establishment) answer many times - soaring
costs for 'shelter' and healthcare have hoovered up every penny saved (and
more); and now,
a new study proves it - exposing the reality that many Obamacare customers
pay more than 10 percent of their incomes toward coverage (and some paying
considerably more).

The shocking findings show that,
as CNBC summarizes, One in 10 Obamacare customers who earn between just two
and five times the federal poverty level will have coverage costs that exceed
21 percent of their incomes, an analysis by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
and the Urban Institute found.

And the median Obamacare customer who earns in that range spends more than 10
percent of their income on monthly premiums and out-of-pocket health expenses,
the analysis found.

So, if you've been wondering where all your money is going, wonder no more.

The law that
promised to reduce our costs has instead inflated them beyond
anything we could have imagined. Premiums, deductibles, co-pays, and overall
health care spending continue to escalate
faster than ever, piling increase upon increase, with no relief in sight.
This, of course, on top of the tax hikes needed to subsidize Obamacare for the
Taker class so they'll keep on voting Democrat.

Which only means we'll see more stories like
this one, describing how average Americans can't afford to use their
mandatory health insurance.

Oh, but Lena Dunham and her feminut slut sisters get "free" birth control, so
there's that.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), under pressure from labor allies,
is pressing hard for a two-year moratorium of ObamaCare's "Cadillac tax" in a
major tax deal that negotiators hope to wrap up by Monday.

Reid has assured labor leaders that freezing the Cadillac tax on high-benefit
insurance plans is a top personal priority, and he wants to get it done now,
knowing he has only a year left as Senate Democratic leader.

Some Republicans, such as Sen. Dean Heller, also of Nevada, support getting rid
of the Cadillac tax, but Reid is doing the heavy lifting to make sure it's part
of a year-end deal, according to sources familiar with the talks.

"Leader Reid feels very strongly, in my opinion from discussions with him, that
this needs to be done and it needs to be done now. And I think he is confident
that will occur," said Harold Schaitberger, general president of the
International Association of Firefighters, who met with Reid this past week.

Poor, poor unionistas. Or should I say, mendacious, greedy, duplicious
unionistas? Because that's what they are. Unions fought tooth and nail
for Obamacare. Unions funnel millions of dollars to Democrats who voted
for Obamacare.

You made your bed Mr. Schaitberger, now lie in it.

"At minimum, delaying the implementation of this Cadillac tax would be seen as
of major importance to workers and the security of their [health] plans," he
added. "Without taking care of this it will have profound impact in the
political arena over the course of the next many months."

Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. Every dime you slimeballs have to pay in Cadillac Tax is one
less dime you can donate to Hillary's campaign.

I see that as A Big Plus.

What I can't figure out though, is why any Republican would be in favor of
helping these guys avoid paying a tax they brought upon themselves. In other
words, what's Dean Heller's malfunction? He should be making popcorn while
the tax goes into effect as the unions and the Democrats point fingers at
each other.

It'd be especially gratifying to see public employee unions like the firemen
get hoisted on their own petard. Maybe they'll even decide to cut back
on their gold-plated benefits packages! Because that would bring a smile to
even the most jaded property-tax-paying citizen living in unionista-dominated
blue states. We're getting crushed by pension and benefits costs,
and these guys have absolutely zero interest in lightening our load.

In fact, in one particularly egregious example, New Jersey's union grifters
got Steve Sweeney to propose
a massive public employee pension boost and the onerous tax
increases that'll be needed to fund it too. Because we aren't paying them
enough already, or something.

These union guys just don't get it. Their only mantra is Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.

But now we have the opportunity to stick it the unions, good and hard, and all
the GOP has to do is sit back and let it happen. So c'mon Mitch McConnell,
bury Harry Reid's Cadillac Tax moratorium. Send him home in ignominious defeat.
Tell the unions to shut up and pay their "fair share."

The reality of Obamacare continues to underperform the promises of Obamacare.

Today we learn of
two more states that are shuttering their money-losing Obamacare co-ops.

Two nonprofit health insurers set up under ObamaCare announced on Friday that
they are shutting down, the latest in a string of closures due to financial
problems.

The closure of the two health insurers in Colorado and Oregon means that just
15 of the original 23 co-ops will remain in business next year.

The news comes after announcements on Wednesday that Tennessee's co-op is
shutting down and last Friday that Kentucky's co-op would shutter.

November 1 marks the start of next year's enrollment period. So with barely
two weeks to go, customers of these co-ops will have to scramble to find new
coverage.

But remember, if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.

Wanna guess why these co-ops failed?

They ran out of Other People's Money!

Many of the beleaguered co-ops have blamed low payouts from an ObamaCare
program known as risk corridors. That program was designed to protect insurers
against heavy losses by collecting money from insurers doing well and giving
it to insurers faring poorly. But the Obama administration announced on Oct. 1
that the program had only taken in enough funds to pay out 12.6 percent of the
$2.87 billion that insurers had requested.

They charged below-market premiums to attract customers, and the customers
they attracted turned out to be older and sicker than they wanted them to be.
Then, in typical Obama fashion, the unicorns didn't ride in at the 11th hour
to save the day.

Advocates for better end-of-life care expect Medicare to soon announce that it
will start paying physicians for having advanced-care planning conversations
with patients — reviving the widely misunderstood provision that gave
rise to "death panel" fears and nearly sank the Affordable Care Act.

Spin, Politico, spin!

If it looks like a death panel, and it acts like a death panel, well, I'm gonna
call it a death panel.

The new policy could be part of an annual Medicare physician payment rule,
which could be released any day.

With an aging population and growing public awareness that high-tech
interventions are often futile at the end of life, doctors have encouraged
private insurers to cover advanced-care conversations. Some state Medicaid
programs already do so.

Sorry Grandma, you're not worth it.

Oh, wait, I'm being "hysterical" again.

Such a policy shift would come six years after former vice presidential
candidate Sarah Palin's wild charges of "death panels" triggered near-hysteria
that bureaucrats might begin to withhold medical care from older Americans.
Polls showed that the charges stuck, and the ongoing uproar in the summer of
2009 almost derailed Obamacare. The same fears have shadowed the law ever since.

Gee, I wonder why?

Oh, right, because cutting Medicare / Medicaid reimbursement rates is the one
thing Obamacare has been good at doing. Except that doctors voted with their
feet, leaving an acute shortage of physicians willing to play by Obamacare's
rules.

So what do you do when there aren't enough doctors to go around?

You ration care!

How do you ration care?

By making old people feel guilty for "wasting" the doctor's time. They're just
going to die anyway, why prolong their agony?

Now imagine how that'll play out in conjunction with discussions of costs
for end-of-life care. Grandma has a duty to die, before she wastes
precious resources that could be used for more important stuff like sex-change
operations and free birth control.

The greatest wealth transfer ever enacted lives on. Chief Justice John Roberts,
a traitor to the Constitution if there ever was one,
redefined the English language.

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld ObamaCare subsidies nationwide, in the
second major court victory for President Obama on his signature health care
law.

In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that subsidies are valid even in states
that did not set up their own insurance exchanges.

Because "established by the states" actually means "established by the federal
government." Really. That's the crux of his, ahem, reasoning.

"Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets,
not to destroy them," Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. "The Act gives
each State the opportunity to establish its own Exchange, but provides that
the Federal Government will establish the Exchange if the State does not."

"Having transformed two major parts of the law, the Court today has turned its
attention to a third. The Act that Congress passed makes tax credits available
only on an 'Exchange established by the State.' This Court, however, concludes
that this limitation would prevent the rest of the Act from working as well as
hoped. So it rewrites the law to make tax credits available everywhere."

"We should just start calling this law SCOTUScare."

"…the cases will publish forever the discouraging truth that the Supreme
Court of the United States favors some laws over others, and is prepared to do
whatever it takes to uphold and assist its favorites."

A "penalty" is a "tax," except when it's a "penalty" that some people won't
actually have to pay. Whatever it takes to keep this abomination limping
along, sucking the lifeblood out of the productive class.

So now, having decreed that Obama can force us to purchase a product, and
that now and forever he can tax me to subsidize your purchase of it, what's
to stop him from expanding the Obamacare model to other liberal shibboleths?
Is "The Electric Car Affordability and Environmental Protection Act" beyond
the realm of possibility? Imagine a world in which every American must
purchase a Chevy Volt, and tax credits are available to ensure we all do
our part to Save The Planet. Because that is the world John Roberts lives in.

Words no longer have meaning. Or rather, they mean whatever John Roberts says
they mean. In which case our republic is doomed.

Health insurers are proposing to raise Obamacare rates more than in the past
— some by more than 70 percent — now that they are finally equipped
with all the information they need to price those plans.

Plans wanting to raise rates by at least 10 percent next year posted the
proposed increase online Monday, as required by the 2010 healthcare law.
Insurers are allowed to raise rates each year, but they must publish
significant increases ahead of time.

Insurers have sold plans in the law's new insurance marketplaces for two years
in a row. But the difference in 2016 is that for the first time, they have a
full year of claims data from enrollees that tells them how high or low to set
the price tag.

While plans and rates vary by state, a look at rate increases published Monday
on healthcare.gov shows many hovering around 10 to 30 percent in many states.

But there's also a sprinkling of even bigger hikes. Blue Cross wants to raise
its most expensive "platinum" plan in Alabama by 71 percent next year. Aetna
wants to charge 59 percent more for one of its small group plans in Virginia.
Time Insurance Co. is proposing a 64 percent hike for an individual plan in
Georgia.

Because it turns out the people signing up for Obamacare are older and sicker
than the Obamabots said they'd be.

Until now, insurers have had to mostly guess at who would enroll in Obamacare
plans. If the enrollees tended younger and healthier, they could price plans
lower. But if they ended up being older and sicker, prices would need to be
higher.

And with year two of Obamacare enrollment concluded, there are more older
enrollees than younger ones. Almost half were older than age 44, according
to final enrollment data from the Obama administration.

Experts are predicting rates will escalate faster next year than in the two
years prior, as insurers take a close look at who is enrolling in Obamacare
plans to get a good sense of the overall picture.

But wait, there's more. Bad news, that is. Remember all those mandates for
"free" coverages? They cost money too.

The national group representing insurers quickly jumped to their defense Monday
when asked about the big increases. Clare Krusing, a spokeswoman for American's
Health Insurance Plans, said there are many reasons for the increases —
including taxes and fees and the fact that more insurers are phasing out plans
that do not comply with Obamacare's rules.

"Premiums cannot be viewed in isolation," Krusing said. "It's critical to look
at the individual market dynamics that impact how much consumers pay for their
health care coverage and the factors, like provider consolidation and exploding
prescription drug prices, that drive up premiums across the country."

So next year, when you can't afford your health insurance, be sure to thank a
Democrat. Because no matter how much you disliked the old system, nothing says
"you're gonna get screwed" quite like the government trying to make it "affordable."

The Hawaii Health Connector has prepared a contingency plan to shut down
operations by Sept. 30 after lawmakers failed to pass legislation to keep
the state's troubled Obamacare insurance exchange afloat.

"Now that it is clear that the state will not provide sufficient support for
the Hawaii Health Connector's operations through fiscal year 2016 (ending June
30, 2016), the Connector can no longer operate in a manner that would cause it
to incur additional debts or other obligations for which it is unable to pay,"
Connector officials said in a report released Friday to the nonprofit's board
of directors.

The plan, obtained by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, states the Connector will
cease new enrollments Friday, discontinue outreach services May 31 and transfer
its technology to the state by Sept. 30. The Connector's workforce will be
completely eliminated by Feb. 28. The exchange has 32 employees, 29 temporary
staff and 12 full-time contractors.

"Staff reductions will commence immediately, with the executive director (Jeff
Kissel) exiting once the bulk of operational activities end," the report said.
"If the state cannot facilitate an orderly transition, the Connector's
operations will abruptly end, as the Connector does not have the resources to
continue operations."

37,000 people will lose their health insurance, and have to scramble onto the
federal exchange if they want coverage.

The CEO of HealthCare.gov on Monday said states would not be able to
immediately set up their own insurance marketplaces if the Supreme Court
rules against ObamaCare this summer.

Kevin Counihan, the director of HealthCare.gov, told an audience at the
National Health Insurance Exchange Summit that creating an exchange is a
"very, very complex activity" that could not be achieved in just a few months.

"It would not be something that folks could do for this next open enrollment
period," he said during a question-and-answer session, referring to the sign-up
period that begins in November.

I don't think Hawaii is gonna be ready for that. Which ought to make things,
um, interesting for Dear Leader when he goes back there for another
Christmas vacation.

Medicaid, the public health insurance program expanded under the Affordable
Care Act, now covers nearly one out of every five New Jersey residents,
according to the latest enrollment figures.

More than 420,000 people signed up for insurance since New Jersey allowed more
people to into the program, according to Valerie Harr, director of the division
of medical assistance and health services for the N.J. Department of Human Services.

About 80,000 of those people already qualified for the program under the old
income guidelines - but didn't realize it until they attempted to enroll in
Obamacare policies and found they were poor enough to qualify for Medicaid.

All told, 1.7 million New Jersey residents will now have the bulk of their
medical expenses covered by Medicaid.

Obamanomics — it's Trickle Up Poverty!

Of course, the Obamabots / Hillarians* consider putting 20 percent
of New Jersey on the dole a success. Because they're not paying for it.

But, those of us who are still dumb enough to be working for a living?

Five years since it was shoved down our throats in the dark of night, and
despite all the debacles encountered along the way, Obamacare's supporters
continue to insist it's "working." Their definition of "working" must be
different from mine. Because even if it might have succeeded in forcing people
to buy health insurance,
those people can't find a doctor who'll take it.

The Affordable Care Act has provided a path for 420,500 low-income New Jersey
residents to gain insurance through the Medicaid program, but a new study says
the state ranks last in the nation in doctors willing to treat them.

Just 38.7 percent of New Jersey physicians said they accepted new Medicaid
patients in 2013 — far below the national average of nearly 69 percent,
according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. New Jersey is the only state where fewer than half of
the doctors accepted new Medicaid patients. California, at 54.2 percent is
second-lowest in the nation.

New Jersey's Medicaid physician reimbursement rates — among the lowest
in the country despite the state's high cost of living — have long
suppressed doctor participation in the program known as NJ FamilyCare.

Are you surprised by that? Of course you aren't.

Obamabots believe doctors should work for free.

Notice how they don't hold themselves to the same standard.

A report by NJ Advance Media in February detailed the problems people on
Medicaid have finding a doctor who will see them. Making the situation even
more challenging to patients, an investigation of the insurance company lists
of participating providers revealed those lists to be inaccurate or out-of-date.

Half of the households that received subsidies to help pay health insurance
premiums last year under the Affordable Care Act will probably have to repay
some of that money to the federal government, according to a new analysis by
the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Sorry suckers!

Taxpayers generally receive subsidies in advance, with the amount based on
their projected household income for the year the insurance policy will be
in effect. But they must then reconcile the estimate with their actual income
when filing federal taxes. Kaiser estimated that subsidy recipients who
underestimated their incomes will owe $794 on average.

There goes your refund. Please make your check payable to Obama For
America Ready For Hillary and don't forget to mail it in by April
15th.

Complying with the health care law is costing small businesses thousands of
dollars that they didn't have to spend before the new regulations went into
effect.

Brad Mete estimates his staffing company, Affinity Resources, will spend
$100,000 this year on record-keeping and filing documents with the government.
He's hired two extra staffers and is spending more on services from its human
resources provider.

The Affordable Care Act, which as of next Jan. 1 applies to all companies with
50 or more workers, requires owners to track staffers' hours, absences and how
much they spend on health insurance. Many small businesses don't have the human
resources departments or computer systems that large companies have, making it
harder to handle the paperwork. On average, complying with the law costs small
businesses more than $15,000 a year, according to a survey released a year ago
by the National Business Association.

A group of Democratic senators is urging the Obama administration to delay a
key portion of Obamacare because the results could be "harmful and disruptive."

The letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Claire McCaskill, Heidi Heitkamp,
Chris Coons, Joe Manchin, Joe Donnelly and Jon Tester and independent Sen.
Angus King, who caucuses with the Democrats.

"We are writing to share our concerns regarding scheduled changes to the
definition of the small group market under the Affordable Care Act (ACA),"
the senators wrote in the letter, dated March 12.

"Under the law, employers with 51 to 100 employees will be included in the ACA's
definition of small group market starting in 2016. Instead of providing
stability, we believe expanding the definition will force those historically
defined 'large group plans' into the 'small group market,' where they could
experience higher premiums, less flexibility, and new barriers to coverage.
We therefore encourage you to delay the effective date in the definition
change for two years so the market can more smoothly transition to the new
rules."

Wait, I thought Obamacare was working swimmingly and all the kinks were
worked out! How can these senators say it causes "higher premiums, less
flexibility, and new barriers to coverage?"

Because the small group marketplace (aka SHOP) still isn't built, that's why.
It's 2 years behind schedule. And I'll know you'll find this hard to believe,
but it's actually more of a trainwreck than the original Obamacare web site.

As a guy who's already stuck in the hell that is Obamacare's small business
marketplace, let me tell you, it's worse than you can imagine. Choices? Yeah,
we have "choices." Between Expensive, Ridiculously Expensive, and Donald Trump
Couldn't Afford This Plan. We liked our insurance. We didn't get to keep our
insurance. And our employees are not happy. Not one bit.

Just wait until thousands and thousands more hapless schmucks are subjected
to the same fate. No wonder these senators are worried, people who are pissed
off at Obamacare might not vote for HillBillary. They might even decide to
put that Ted Cruz feller into the White House. And then where would progressivism
be?

Obamacare, it's so great they have to force you to buy it, and then they have to
keep postponing the really scary parts so they can retain their hold on power.
No wonder it's so popular!

The White House has some bad news for those ObamaCare-insured taxpayers who
prepared for early tax filing — or actually had already filed. That form
that they sent out about premiums and subsidies?
More than ten percent of them turned out to be wrong, so … you'll
have to either wait to calculate your taxes, or have a do-over.

They'll mail corrected forms "soon."

Hey, filing your taxes wasn't painful enough, right?

It's not just the federal exchange, either. The Covered California system
issued 100,000 erroneous tax forms, too. The AP has no word on other state
exchanges, but it's beginning to look like ObamaCare may snarl tax preparation
for weeks.

But don't worry, your health care is in the very best of hands!

Really. You'd think Obama would take a few minutes from playing golf or
apologizing to Muslims to make sure his signature legislation
isn't screwing over the people he's claiming to help.

Nope.

Meanwhile, HHS has Hillary's back — if a low-information voter has been
living under a rock for the past 5 years
she can still sign up for Obamacare even though enrollments are technically
"closed" for 2015.

The Obama administration said it would allow people to sign up for plans on
HealthCare.gov through April to avoid tax penalties for going uncovered in 2015.

The extension, which adds more than two months to the enrollment period for
health coverage this year, was announced by Health and Human Services officials
on Friday.

People who pay penalties for going uncovered in 2014 and are still uninsured
will be allowed to visit HealthCare.gov until the end of April, said Andy
Slavitt, principal deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services, the HHS unit overseeing implementation of the law. They
will be able to apply for coverage starting March 15 as long as they attest
that they didn't learn about the health law's requirement to carry insurance
or pay the fine when they filed their taxes. The site had
closed Sunday for most users.

Democrats were in a panic that their voters would get socked with two
tax penalties this year, and take it out on Hillary Clinton's presidential
ambitions in 2016.

Besides, deadlines are for suckers. Obama's minions just rewrite the law to
suit their whims, because, uh, it's good to be king!

It's us peons who have to live with the fallout. Good thing I haven't filed
my taxes yet.

Sometimes I start to think that maybe Democrats do have principles. But then,
reality always obviates me of that silly notion.

The official sign-up season for President Barack Obama's health care law may
be over, but leading congressional Democrats say millions of Americans facing
new tax penalties deserve a second chance.

Three senior House members told The Associated Press that they plan to strongly
urge the administration to grant a special sign-up opportunity for uninsured
taxpayers who will be facing fines under the law for the first time this year.

The three are Michigan's Sander Levin, the ranking Democrat on the Ways and
Means Committee, and Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, and Lloyd
Doggett of Texas. All worked to help steer Obama's law through rancorous
congressional debates from 2009-2010.

So they were for the penalties, until the penalties started biting
their key demographic (low-information consumers of government) in the ass.

The lawmakers say they are concerned that many of their constituents will find
out about the penalties after it's already too late for them to sign up for
coverage, since open enrollment ended Sunday.

That means they could wind up uninsured for another year, only to owe
substantially higher fines in 2016. The fines are collected through the
income tax system.

This year is the first time ordinary Americans will experience the complicated
interactions between the health care law and taxes. Based on congressional
analysis, tax preparation giant H&R Block says roughly 4 million uninsured
people will pay penalties.

That's 4 million people who'll be less likely to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Whoa, we can't have that! To the ramparts! Fight the penalties!

"Open enrollment period ended before many Americans filed their taxes," the
three lawmakers said in a statement. "Without a special enrollment period,
many people (who will be paying fines) will not have another opportunity to
get health coverage this year."

Wait, you mean
President Selfie Stick didn't get his message out to everyone on the DNC's
list of likely Hillary voters? It's been 5 years now, just how out of touch are
their sycophants?

Apparently, pretty darned out of touch. Because Obamabots are getting
blindsided, and they're not liking it, not one bit.

Janice Riddle got a nasty surprise when she filled out her tax return this year.

The Los Angeles resident had applied for Obamacare in late 2013, when she was
unemployed. She qualified for a hefty subsidy of $470 a month, leaving her with
a monthly premium of $1 for the cheapest plan available.

Riddle landed a job in early 2014 at a life insurance agency, but since her
new employer didn't offer health benefits, she kept her Obamacare plan.
However, she didn't update her income with the California exchange, which
she acknowledges was her mistake.

Now, she has to pay back the entire subsidy, which is forcing her to dip
into her savings.

"I was blindsided that the subsidy has to be paid back," said Riddle, adding
she didn't even use the coverage, which she had until she qualified for
Medicare in October. "I'm in shock…but I have no choice. Do I want to
argue with the IRS or the Obama administration?"

Bwahahahaha! Sucks to be you Toots.

Who here thinks Ms. Riddle is going to learn from her mistake?

Yeah, me neither. She'll still vote for the Democrats and their false promises.
Because you just can't fix stupid. But you can mock it. Mercilessly.

What do you do when you realize that
millions of low-information voters are going to get hosed by your signature
piece of legislation? Well, if you're Barack Obama, you unilaterally decide not
to enforce the inconvenient provisions of that law.

So it should come as no surprise that the IRS has "clarified" how they'll
recapture excess Obamacare subsidies come April 15th. They won't.
Not right away anyway.

If you got health insurance subsidies last year, and you're worried that you
got too much in federal tax credits and will be faced with a huge tax bill for
repayment, then you can worry a little less: The IRS says that people who are
liable for repayment ("clawback") of excess subsidies
won't have to pay by April 15.

It's not relieving you of the obligation to repay; it's just saying that you
won't be liable for a penalty if you don't repay by the deadline. Interest will
continue to accrue, but the interest rates that the IRS charges are actually
pretty reasonable (and probably much better than what your credit card company
charges). It's the failure-to-pay penalties it layers on top --
half a percentage point a month, with even stiffer penalties for failing
to file -- that really make your tax bill add up fast.

Well, isn't that special? Pay your taxes whenever you feel like it! That is,
if you're somebody the Democrats are counting on to help put Hillary Clinton
in the White House.

As the saying goes, Obama's got more nerve than cheap veal cutlet. This is,
what, the 914th time he's decided he can just ignore the law whenever it
turns out to be politically embarrassing? Underpayment penalties are fine
and dandy when they're incurred by regular schmoes like me. But folks who
bought into the Hope and Change? They gotta be given special dispensations!
They can't feel the pain of their own electoral dysfunction. They might,
gasp!, vote Republican!

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's new budget includes a nearly $69 million tax on
health-insurance policies to pay for the administrative costs of continuing
New York's ObamaCare health exchange, The Post has learned.

The levy is intended to make up for federal funds no longer available to the
states as of this year. Adding up to about $25 per person insured under the
plan, the cost is almost certainly going to be passed on to consumers.

The tax is being called a bait-and-switch by opponents of Cuomo's decision to
start a state-run ObamaCare health exchange in New York. Had he not done so,
they argue, there would have been no need for the tax.

"There was no indication that there would be a new tax to pay for this. We had
plenty of debate on ObamaCare. I never heard this mentioned," said Assemblyman
Steve McLaughlin (R-Troy).

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Because Obamacare is so gosh-darned wonderful, right? A bargain at twice
the price! Or something.